Shot injector



R. S. SOLVIK ET AL SHOT INJECTOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS RAGNAR S SOLVIK 8.

WILLIAM KIRCH BY &

Jan. 4, 1966 Filed Sept. 8, 1964 FIG. I

Jan. 4, 1966 R. s. SOLVIK ET AL 3,227,312

SHOT INJECTOR Filed Sept. 8, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3

AIR SUPPLY 1 M D W G M m 0 V m R V D N .l v I\ E E E V M W g mw// V1 mom r N E TO ANALYZER FIG.6

INVENTORS RAGNAR S.SOLVIK &

WILLIAM KIRCH BY M A ORNEY Jan. 4, 1966 R. s. SOLVIK ETAL SHOT INJECTOR 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 8, 1964 FLUSH STREAM LIQUID OR GAS tPRocEss STREAM 4- WAY SOLENOID VALVE REPEAT CYCLE TIMER CATALYST SLURRY STORAG E VESSEL FIG.4

STIRRED POLYMERIZA- TION VESSEL INVENTORS RAGNAR S. SOLVIK 8.

SE38 w osmwxk 3 f llllll ll COOLING WATER OUT COOLING WATER IN P OTENTIOMETER CONTROLLER R E D R o C E R PURGE WILLIAM KIRCH SOLVENT OR GAS CYCLE ATTORNEY United States Patent M 3,227,312 SHOT INJECTOR Ragnar S. Solvik, Wyoming, and William Kirch, Cincin nati, Ohio, assignors to National Distillers and Chemical Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Virginia Filed Sept. 8, 1964, Ser. No. 394,822 ,11 Claims. (Cl.22252) This invention relates to intermittent feeding apparatus and more particularly to a novel method and apparatus for the intermittent feeding of a predetermined quantity or charge of material into apressu'rized reaction vessel or into a process stream at a Controlled rate of speed.

Metering valves of thecharacter with which we here are concerned are known in the prior art. Such valves usually are of the plugtype having an orifice therein, the construction and arrangement including the provision of a port or passage of predetermined size which extends through the plug. In one position this passage is in communication with a source of supply of solid or liquid material Which enters into the plug passage. Rotation of the valve plug to a predetermined position into communication with a source of supply ofsolid or liquid the flushing or delivery of the charge of material from the valve.

Valves of this character may require90 degrees of rotation between filling and discharge positions, with intermittent operation requiring a time delay at the filling station, and a rotation of 180 between each complete operative cycle. The present invention contemplates the provision of at least two non-intersecting ports or passages through the valve plug whereby when one of said passages is being charged with material, the other of said passages is in communication with a pressurized feed stream, or the like, thereby substantially eliminating time delays betweenthe charging and discharging of the valve plug. The novel valve and plugof the present invention permits the use of a continuous flush stream to the recipient vessel, pipe line, or the like, thereby obviating the possibility of plugging the feed line either with material being introduced or with reaction products.

Accordingly, among the principal objects of the .present invention is the provisionof a novel metering valve having a rotatable plug which, during each operative cycle,

is simultaneously charged with a predetermined quantity of material while a similar charge thereof is presented to a pressure stream and vented or delivered from the valve.

It is a'further object ofthe invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for introducing powdered solids or liquid into a pressurized reaction vessel at variable and controllable rates. a

A still further object of the invention is toprovide novel apparatus of the class set forth whereby therate of feed can be increased or decreasedby respectively varying the rate of cycling of thevalve without any necessity for considering timedelays in connection with the filling of the valve passage.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a novel metering valve of the-class set forth which Will ratus of theclass setiorth wherein, when desired, samples can be withdrawnfrom the process stream, for analysis or the like.

A still further object of theinvention is to provide novel apparatus ofthe. class set forth whichv maybe controlledby a manual switch, by automatic timing mechanism, or by a control circuit which will function auto- 3,227,312 *Patented Jan. 4, 1966 matically to vary the feed rate in accordance with an output control signal from associated apparatus to maintain desired reaction conditions.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a verticalsectional view through a novel metering valve constructed in accordance'with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional view through the novel valve, taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal sectional view through the novel.valve, taken on the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 4 is a view illustrating, somewhat diagrammatically, utilization of the present invention to feed a polymerization catalyst into a reaction vessel, reaction rate in the reactor being utilized to vary automatically the rate of flow of catalyst; FIGURE 5 is a view illustrating, also somewhat diagrammatically, utilization of thepresent invention to feed a solid or a liquid into afluid process stream witha manually set timer or an electrical control circuit for varying the feed rate with the process stream and wherein the flow rate of the process stream may be employed to control the rate of feed of solid or liquid material; and

FIGURE 6 is a view illustrating, somewhat diagrammatically, apparatus for intermittently removing a sample from the fluid process stream for automatic analysis.

*As shown in-the drawings, particular reference being had to FIGURES 1, 2 and 3'thereof, the novel metering valve comprisesa body or housing 10 provided with a centrally located and preferably tapered. recessll for the reception of a rotatable and complementarily tapered plug 12. The valve body further'isprovided with a'vertically disposed feed inlet port or passage'13 extendingtherethrough in communication with the centrally located recess 11 and ahorizontally disposed discharge or outlet port or passage 14 also extending therethrough in communication with the recess 11. To provide for a snug and substantially fluid-proof fit With the tapered plug 12, the recess 11 desirably is provided with a suitable liner 15, produced from Teflon, or the like, and machined grooves 16 may be provided in the recess for the reception of annular ribs'15a on the liner 15 to provide for i a secure'assembly.

noted that while the ports 17 and 18 provide'perpendicularly disposedpassages through the valve plug, thesepassages do not intersect and there can be no communication therebetween.

While each of the passages 17 and 18 have been illustrated as being constituted by two angularly disposed portions, these ports may be arcuate and thus the passages will by-pass each other centrally of the valve plug. It also willbe noted that the centers of the opposite ex.- tremities of the passages or ports 17 and 13 are disposed or located ona single or identical transverse plan for reasons which will be pointed out hereafter. v

The upper extremity of the valve inlet port 13 desirably is enlarged as indicated at 19 to provide a seat for the reduced extremity 20 of a feed transition piece 21 having a downwardly tapered bore 22 communicating directly with the port 17 for the gravity feeding of powdered solid or other material to the valve from any suitable source of supply (not shown). While any desired type of fluid-proof connection may be provided-between the feed transition piece 21 and the valve body 10, the extremity of the feed transition piece is machined with a half union adapter to provide a splined and tapered joint, as illustrated, which has been found to be particularly advantageous.

In like manner, the lower extremity of the valve inlet passage 13 is enlarged as indicated at 23 to provide a seat for a suitable fitting or nipple 24 having direct connection with a purge or sample valve 25 which will be discussed more fully hereafter. Here, again, to eliminate an internal threaded surface, the seat 23 is tapered and a splined and tapered joint is provided.

The entrance of the valve body outlet port or passage 14 desirably is provided with an enlarged seat portion 26 for connection with a suitable conduit, or the like, leading to a source of fluid pressure (not shown) providing a process feed stream. In like manner, the opposite extremity or exit of the valve body outlet passage is provided with an enlarged seat portion 27 for connection with a suitable conduit, or the like, having dire-ct connection with a reaction vessel or other appropriate apparatus (not shown) to be charged intermittently with the material being metered.

The valve plug 12 includes a stem portion 28 which extends outwardly of the valve body and is journalled for rotative movement within a suitable bearing 29. A cap plate 3%} is provided for maintaining a fluid-tight assembly between the valve plug, bearing, and valve body. Desirably the valve body is provided with an annular recess 31 within which a ring like extension on the cap plate seats, a gasket, or the like, 32 being utilized to insure an appropriate fit and threaded studs or other fastening elements 33 being employed to secure the cap plate to the valve body. The free extremity of the stem portion 28 of the valve plug is reduced as indicated at 34 for ready engagement with suitable valve actuating means as is Well known in this and related arts and requires no particular discussion here.

The operation of the metering valve described hereabove is particularly simple. With the port or passage 17 (or 18) in vertical position, there is direct communication with the bore 22 of the feed transition piece 21 and material therein, whether a powdered solid or liquid, will be gravity fed into the vertically disposed passage. At the same time the other port or passage in the valve plug will be in horizontal position and continuously flushed by the process feed stream. Rotation of the valve plug 90 will advance the passage .previously filed with powdered or liquid material to a horizontal position in communication with the process feed stream while the passage previously flushed will be in vertical position in communication with the source of supply and will be gravity filled with a charge of material simultaneously with the flushing of the previously filled port or passage.

Thus, the valve or device meters a predetermined and definite volume of powdered solids or liquid into the pressurized process stream, or reactor, with each cycle or 90 movement of the valve plug. The solids or liquid feed rate can be increased, or decreased, by varying respectively the rate of cycling of the valve plug. The volume of the ports in the plug determine the amount of the charge (powdered solid or liquid); thus, the size of the plug and the volume of the ports therein may be selected to give optimum results for each specific application.

When it is desired to remove a sample of the material being charged or fed, as for analysis or other purpose, such material drops by gravity into the sample or purge valve 25 which also may be of the plug type and is provided with a manually operable handle 35 whereby the plug may be rotated to permit discharge of the material therein through the conduit 36 for recovery and desired treatment. The present invention also contemplates the periodic sampling of material being metered and automatic means may be provided for the intermittent operation of the purge valve and removal of material therefrom.

There has been illustrated in FIGURE 4 of the drawings one important application of the invention where a polymerization catalyst is being fed from a reservoir or source containing a catalyst slu'rry into a reaction vessel 41.

Specifically, under precise operating conditions, the size of catalyst particles in the slurry ranged from 1 to 250 microns and the density of the catalyst slurry was 0.32 gram per cc. The ports 17 and 18 of the valve plug had internal diameters of Ms" and each port had a volume of 0.02 cc. Each cycle of the valve plug introduced 0.064 gram of catalyst into the reactor and the catalyst storage tank 40 was padded with a non-reactive hydrocarbon reaction medium to prevent introduction of gases into the reactor. Pneumatic means H was employed for rotating the plug 12 of the valve 10.

Because the polymerization reaction was exothermic, the reaction vessel 41 was provided with a jacket 42 and Water cooled. This permitted the change in temperature of the water passing through the jacket or heat exchanger 42 to be utilized to vary automatically the cycle time of the catalyst feeder to maintain the desired reaction rate.

In the control circuit illustrated, thermocouples 43 are placed across the inlet and outlet connections of cooling water circulating through the heat exchanger 42, there being electrical connection between the thermocouples 43 and a potentiometer-transmitter 44 from which the signal created by temperature increase or decrease from a given level is conveyed by pneumatic means to a recorder-controller 45 and thence to an elcctro-pneumatic interrupter 46. Here the signal is picked up electrically, conveyed to a repeat cycle timer 47 and thence to a 4-way solenoid valve 48 which controls the fluid pressure going to the pneumatic valve actuating mechanism indicated diagrammatically at H. Thus, depending upon the reaction rate within the reactor, the cycle time of the catalyst feeder may be increased or decreased, as required, to maintain the desired reaction rate.

There has been illustrated .in FIGURE 5 of the drawings a further specific application of the invention where a powdered solid, or a liquid, is introduced into a fluid process stream. The solid, or liquid, may be a catalyst, inhibitor, moderator, or any other material intended to control a specific reaction in the process stream or to improve the chemical or physical properties of the final product.

As shown, an additive storage tank 50 is provided for supplying suitable material to the valve 10 and pneumatic means H is provided for actuating the plug 12 of this valve. Flushing is accomplished by liquid or gas introduced at 51 and metered material is delivered to a suitable conduit or the like 52 through which a process stream travels. A 4-way solenoid valve 53, provided for controlling the pneumatic metering valve actuation, has electrical connection to a repeat cycle timer 54. This cycle timer, which may be adjusted manually, or a control circuit to vary the feed rate with process stream flow rate, can be employed to control the feed rate of the solid or liquid material.

Apparatus has been illustrated in FIGURE 6 of the drawings for intermittently removing a sample from a process or purge stream for automatic analysis. As shown, the process stream from the conduit or the like delivers material through the valve 10, which has pneumatic actuating mechanism H, to a rotameter 61. In this arrangement sampling occurs when one of the passages through the valve is in vertical position.

The pneumatic valve actuating mechanism includes a manually operated 4-way valve 62 (a timer operated solenoid may be utilized if desired) and any inert carrier gas, such as helium, supplied at 63 from a suitable source is employed to transport samples intermittently and automaticaly to analyzing apparatus through the conduit 64.

It will be obvious to those skilled in this art that vari- I plane and being perpendicularly disposed with respect to each other and communicating with said tapered recess, a complementarily tapered valve plug mounted within said recess for rotative movement, said valve plug having two non-intersecting ports extending therethrough, the central portions of said ports being oppositely offset and said ports being perpendicularly disposed with respect to each other, the opposed extremities of said ports lying in a plane identical to that of said inlet and outlet passages in said valve body, the extremities of said ports being identical in shape to the extremities of said inlet and outlet passages adjacent said extremities of said ports, the construction and arrangement being such that when one of said ports is in communication with the inlet passage of said valve body the other port is in communication with the outlet passage therein.

2. In combination with a metering valve as set forth in claim 1, means for feeding material to be metered to the inlet extremity of the inlet passage of said valve body and into one of the ports of said valve plug, means for applying a fluid pressure stream to one extremity of the outlet passage in said valve body, and means for rotating said valve plug so that as one filled port is presented into communication with said fluid pressure stream and flushed thereby the other part is presented simultaneously into communication with the inlet passage of said valve body for the reception of material fed thereinto.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 2 where the outlet extremity of the inlet passage in said valve body is provided with a normally closed sampling valve and means selectively operable to remove from said sampling valve charges of material fed thereinto.

4. A metering valve including a valve body having perpendicularly disposed intersecting inlet and outlet passages lying in a common transverse plane extending therethrough, and a valve plug mounted in said body for rotative movement, said valve plug having two perpendicularly disposed non-intersecting ports extending therethrough, the extremities of Said ports being identical in shape to the extremities of said inlet and outlet passages adjacent said extremities of said ports, the extremities of said ports lying in a plane identical to that of said inlet and outlet passages whereby when one of said ports is in communication With said inlet passage the other of said ports is in communication with said outlet passage.

5. A plug valve having two perpendicular and nonintersecting ports of identical configuration extending therethrough, the central portions of said ports being offset oppositely with respect to each other and the centers of the opposed extremities of said ports lying in an identical transverse plane.

6. In combination with a pressurized reaction vessel, means for intermittently feeding material into said vessel in predetermined charges at a controlled rate, said means comprising a rotatable plug valve having two perpendicularly disposed and non-intersecting ports extending therethrough, means for successively feeding charges of material into the ports in said plug valve, means for progressively rotating said valve to present a filled port to a fluid pressure stream for delivery of the charge therein to said reaction vessel and simultaneously. feeding a charge of material into the other of said ports, the extremities of said ports being identical in shape to the extremities of said seating means and said fluid pressure stream adjacent said extremities of said ports, and means for variably controlling the rate of rotation of said plug valve and delivery of charges of material to said reaction vessel. 4

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 Where the means for controlling the rate of delivery of material is responsive to the reaction rate in the reaction vessel.

8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 where a sampling valve is associated with said plug valve and means is pro vided for intermittently removing from said sampling valve charges of material being fed through said plug valve.

9. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 where said material is a powdered solid.

10. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 where said material is a liquid.

11. Apparatus as set forth in claim 8 where means is provided for conveying material removed from said sampling valve to an analyzer.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,854,727 4/ 1932 Alkire 251-309 2,914,223 11/ 1959 Richter 222-194 3,054,532 9/ 1962 Eriksson 222-5 6 LOUIS J. DEM BO, Primary Examiner.

HADD S. LANE, Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Certificate Patent No. 3,227,312 Patented January 4, 1966 Ragnar S. Solvik and William Kireh Application having been made jointly by Ra ar S. Solvik and WVilliam Kirch, the inventors named in the patent above identifi National Distillers and Chemical Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Virginia, the assignee; and Charles H. WVehr of Hamilton, Ohio, for the issuance of a certificate under the provisions of Title 35, Section 256 of the United States Code, adding the name of the said Charles H. WVehr as a joint inventor, and a showin and roof of facts satisfying the requirements of the said section having been suhmitte it is this 7th day of June 1966, certified that the name of the said Charles H. \Vehr is hereby added to the said patent as a joint inventor with the said Ragnar S. Solvik and William Kirch.

EDWIN L. REYNOLDS, First Assistant Commissioner of Patents. 

1. A METERING VALVE COMPRISING A VALVE BODY HAVING A CENTRALLY LOCATED TAPERED RECESS THEREIN, SAID VALVE BODY BEING PROVIDED WITH INLET AND OUTLET PASSAGE EXTENDING THERETHROUGH, SAID PASSAGES LYING IN A COMMON PLANE AND BEING PERPENDICULARLY DISPOSED WITH RESPECT TO SUCH OTHER AND COMMUNICATING WITH SAID TAPERED RECESS, A COMPLEMENTARILY TAPERED VALVE PLUG MOUNTED WITHIN SAID RECESS FOR ROTATIVE MOVEMENT, SAID VALVE PLUG HAVING TWO NON-INTERSECTING PORTS EXTENDING THERETHROUGH, THE CENTRAL PORTIONS OF SAID PORTS BEING OPPOSITELY OFFSET AND SAID PORTS BEING PERPENDICULARLY DISPOSED WITH RESPECT TO EACH OTHER, THE OPPOSITE EXTREMITIES OF SAID PORTS LYING IN A PLANE IDENTICAL TO THAT OF SAID INLET AND OUTLET PASSAGES IN SAID VALVE BODY, THE EXTREMITIES OF SAID PORTS BEING IDENTICAL IN SHAPE TO THE EXTREMITIES OF SAID INLET AND OUTLET PASSAGES ADJACENT SAID EXTREMITIES OF SAID PORTS, THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT BEING SUCH THAT WHEN ONE OF SAID PORTS IS IN COMMUNICATION WITH THE INLET PASSAGE OF SAID VALVE BODY THE OTHER PORT IS IN COMMUNICATION WITH THE OUTLET PASSAGE THEREIN. 